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It’s December 26, otherwise known as Boxing Day, so we’ve decided to share a series of thirteen unboxing videos featuring Word Horde titles. Thanks to the folks at Nocturnal Reader’s Box, we were able to put copies of Tales from a Talking Board and Vermilion into 2300 readers’ hands from coast to coast. If you like what you see, consider subscribing (and let them know that Word Horde sent you). Enjoy!

BingeReader

jeffingoff

Marcy Reads

April Grob

Mama’s Place

paul reads

out of the bex

Mindy’s Book Journey

bambisgotbooks Bambi Pitre

Chapter32

The BoxFox

Nightmare Maven

Leighanne’s Lit

Thank you to all of the unboxers and Nocturnal Reader’s Box subscribers, we hope they enjoy the books.

Here’s hoping you got to unbox some cool stuff this holiday season. And if you didn’t find the Word Horde books you wanted under your tree, do keep in mind that our last minute year-end coupon. Just use coupon code word2017, and save 30% on all Word Horde books! And thanks for helping make 2017 a year to remember!

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Have you enjoyed reading recent Word Horde novels such as J. M. McDermott’s We Leave Together, Molly Tanzer’s Vermilion, and Nicole Cushing’s Mr. Suicide? Are you looking forward to collections like Orrin Grey’s Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts and Livia Llewellyn’s Furnace: Stories? Have you written a novel (or long novella) that you think might be a fit for Word Horde? Or would you just like the chance to ask a professional editor a few questions? Are you attending next weekend’s H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon in Portland, OR? Now’s your chance to sign up for a one-on-one pitch session with Word Horde’s editor in chief, Ross E. Lockhart. On Saturday, October 3 between 12 pm and 2 pm, Ross will be listening to pitches and looking for the next break-out hit book. Only a limited number of slots are available, and those slots are going on a first come, first served, basis. Interested pitchers should send an email to submissions[at]wordhorde[dot]com. We’re looking forward to hearing your pitch! Sign up today!

What we’re looking for: Intelligent, adult-oriented fantasy and horror novels, not necessarily in the Lovecraftian tradition, where the writing is excellent and the ideas are fresh. We are not currently looking for Young Adult, superhero, or anthology pitches. Short fiction pitches for in-progress anthologies will be considered.

PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA–Word Horde is proud to announce the release of The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron. Editors Ross E. Lockhart (The Book of Cthulhu, Tales of Jack the Ripper) and Justin Steele (The Arkham Digest) have gathered together many of the brightest lights in dark fiction to pay homage to one of horror’s masters.

Over the past decade, Laird Barron has become one of the most lauded and influential names in horror fiction. His short stories, two novels, and three collections have garnered numerous nominations and awards, including three Shirley Jackson Awards and a Bram Stoker Award. Recognizing Barron’s meteoric rise, Lockhart and Steele sought to assemble an original tribute anthology unlike any other, focusing on atmosphere and affect, rather than simple pastiche.

“Barron’s fiction has long been an inspiration to his peers,” says co-editor Justin Steele. “The interwoven stories and novels create a rich tapestry of noir-infused cosmic horror. This mythology makes for an excellent backdrop for the weird tales within.” Offered this unique opportunity to play in what Publishers Weekly calls Barron’s “worm-riddled literary playground,” these children of Old Leech—Barron’s fans, peers, friends—conjured an anthology “with a coherent feeling of dread, without feeling derivative of the source.”

On Tuesday, July 15, 2014, Word Horde will commemorate the book’s official release with a virtual toast to Old Leech himself. Throughout social media, authors and readers alike are encouraged to share their thoughts about the anthology and its inspiration, Laird Barron, using the hashtag #TCoOL.

The Children of Old Leech is distributed by Ingram, and will be available in Hardcover and eBook formats through most online retailers and better independent bookstores everywhere in July 2014. For more information about Word Horde or to request an electronic review copy, please email publicity[at]wordhorde[dot]com.

It is award season once again in genre fiction land, so I’ve been fielding occasional queries wondering whether Tales of Jack the Ripper (Word Horde) and its contents are eligible for various awards. In the interest of placing all the necessary information at your fingertips (and mine), here is some statistical information on the anthology that I hope will both inform and enlighten.

The anthology Tales of Jack the Ripper was published August 31, 2013, and is comprised of seventeen stories, two poems, and an introduction. Of those seventeen stories, three are reprints, as are the two poems, and fourteen stories are original to the anthology. Tales of Jack the Ripper is a professional market, paying .05/word for original stories and .02/word for reprints. The anthology as a whole should be eligible for consideration in most industry awards’ Anthology categories. The book is 75,859 words total; 60,134 original [79.27%]; 15,723 reprint [20.72%].

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The black eye was healing, but still ached. Dark Annie had Eliza Cooper to blame for that. Something about a purloined penny, some stolen soap, and that handsome pensioner, Edward Stanley. The details were fuzzy for Annie sometimes, particularly when drink was involved, though the bruises were real. This had been a tough year. John had died on Christmas, drank himself to death, then Siffey left her once the money dried up. Annie had been forced to make her living where she could, and when embroidering antimacassars and selling flowers didn’t pay bed and board, she earned what she could on the streets. Her lungs ached, and she wanted one of her pills, but she was down to just two, secured in a corner torn from an envelope because her pillbox had broken. Friends called her Dark Annie because of her dark, wavy hair. In contrast, she was a pale woman with blue eyes, short and stocky. Annie was forty-seven years old.

It was just past midnight on Saturday, September 8, 1888. Annie shared a beer in the kitchen at Crossingham’s Lodging House with Frederick Stevens, then chatted with William Stevens, both fellow lodgers at Crossingham’s. She left for her room, but changed her mind and went out into the night. Around one-forty-five, Annie returned, eating a baked potato. She explained to lodging house deputy Tim Donovan and night watchman John Evans that she didn’t have her rent money, and asked that they hold her bed until she could earn enough on the street.

At five-thirty, Elizabeth Long, a cart-minder, was walking down Hanbury Street toward Spitalfields Market. The clock at the Black Eagle Brewery chimed as she passed No. 29 Hanbury Street, briefly making eye contact with Dark Annie, chatting up a dark, “shabby genteel” fellow in a deerstalker hat. Mrs. Long overhears their conversation as she passes, the man’s ardent “Will you?” Annie, in reply, whispered “yes.”

Elizabeth Long is the penultimate person to see Dark Annie alive.

Annie Chapman’s murder was particularly violent. Her throat had been cut from left to right. She’d been disemboweled, her intestines thrown over her shoulders. Her uterus had been cut out and removed from the scene. At the September 10 police inquest, Dr George Bagster Phillips described the murder weapon: “The instrument used at the throat and abdomen was the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow blade, and must have been at least 6 to 8 inches in length, probably longer. He should say that the injuries could not have been inflicted by a bayonet or a sword bayonet. They could have been done by such an instrument as a medical man used for post-mortem purposes, but the ordinary surgical cases might not contain such an instrument. Those used by the slaughtermen, well ground down, might have caused them. He thought the knives used by those in the leather trade would not be long enough in the blade. There were indications of anatomical knowledge…”

Police made several arrests following Annie’s murder, suspects included a cook, a butcher, and a hairdresser. But none of these panned out. The press, still reeling from the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, continued to sound an accusatory drum for Leather Apron, but within a few weeks, a new name would come to the forefront in the case, a named signed to a series of letters taunting the police. That name? Jack the Ripper.

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Tales of Jack the Ripper edited by Ross E. Lockhart features new and classic fiction inspired by the most notorious serial killer in history.

PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA—Word Horde will release its debut title Tales of Jack the Ripper on August 31, 2013, 125 years after Jack the Ripper first stalked Whitechapel’s streets. The anthology contains seventeen stories and two poems from many of the most distinct voices in dark fantasy and horror, including Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, Ennis Drake, Orrin Grey, Joe R. Lansdale, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, E. Catherine Tobler, and Mercedes M. Yardley.

Word Horde founder Ross E. Lockhart is a veteran of small press publishing, having edited scores of well-regarded novels of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, as well as the critically acclaimed anthologies The Book of Cthulhu I and II. “One of the clichés of the book business is that you publish the books you’d want to read, the books you’d want to put on your own shelves,” says Lockhart. “It’s true. From an early age I’ve been fascinated with the horrifying tale of Jack the Ripper and his era. With Tales of Jack the Ripper, we engage in a dialogue with not only the past, but the future.”

The story of Jack the Ripper captured lurid headlines and the public’s imagination, prompting the first fictionalization mere weeks after the first murder. Since then, hundreds of stories have been written about Bloody Jack, his victims, and his legacy. Tales of Jack the Ripper offers a unique contemporary exploration of this legacy, filtered through the authors’ lives and locales, visions and voices. However, “it’s not a glorification of Jack the Ripper,” explains Blu Gilliand, a reviewer for FEARnet. “Lockhart has not put together the print equivalent of the Friday the 13th film series, in which the murderer becomes the hero. This is not an ode to a killer of women. This is, instead, a look at the power that Jack the Ripper holds over us, even today.”

Tales of Jack the Ripper is distributed by Ingram, and available in Trade Paperback and eBook formats through most online retailers and better independent bookstores everywhere. For more information about Word Horde or to request a review copy, please email publicity[at]wordhorde[dot]com.

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August brings with it the 125th anniversary of the Whitechapel murders and the legacy of the most notorious serial killer in history: Jack the Ripper. To mark this sanguine anniversary, Word Horde presents Tales of Jack the Ripper, an anthology of seventeen stories and two poems by many of the most distinct voices in dark fantasy and horror, including Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, Ennis Drake, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Joe R. Lansdale, E. Catherine Tobler, and many others.

Now, you can put Tales of Jack the Ripper on your own bookshelf. Tales of Jack the Ripper is now available to order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and is coming soon to an independent bookstore near you (ask for Jack by name!). Or you can preorder The Saucy Jack Deluxe Pack direct from Word Horde. The Saucy Jack Deluxe Pack includes one signed Trade Paperback of Tales of Jack the Ripper, one eBook in the format of your choice, and a bloody good selection of Jack schwag. The eBook will be emailed to you when your order is processed, so you can start reading as soon as possible.

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We’re in the home stretch, with Tales of Jack the Ripper just about ready to go to the printer. To celebrate, how about a little extortion? If one hundred twenty-five of you drop by the Word Horde Facebook page and like and/or share the cover photo below, we’ll show you Jack’s back! That’s right, all you have to do is click through and LIKE or SHARE, and once we hit that magic number, we’ll reveal the back cover. Help spread the word, and help Word Horde show the world Jack’s back!

The story of Jack the Ripper captured lurid headlines and the public’s imagination, and the first fictionalization of the Ripper killings, John Francis Brewer’s The Curse Upon Mitre Square appeared in October of 1888, mere weeks after the discovery of Jack’s first victim. Since then, hundreds of stories have been written about Bloody Jack, his victims, and his legacy. Authors ranging from Marie Belloc Lowndes to Robert Bloch to Harlan Ellison to Roger Zelazny to Alan Moore have added their own tales to the Ripper myth. Now, as we arrive at the quasquicentennial of the murders, we bring you a few tales more.

From Word Horde and the editor who brought you The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II comes Tales of Jack the Ripper, featuring new and classic fiction by many of today’s darkest dreamers, including Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, Ed Kurtz, Joe R. Lansdale, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Stanley C. Sargent, E. Catherine Tobler, and many more.

Praise for Ross E. Lockhart’s The Book of Cthulhu and The Book of Cthulhu II:

“The enduring allure of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, now nearly a century old, is evident in this representative anthology of modern tales, most of which were written in the last decade. The breadth of cosmic horrors they evoke range from the parochial fear of monsters found in Michael Shea’s ‘Fat Face,’ to the apocalyptic doom forecasted in Ramsey Campbell’s ‘The Tugging.’ Some of the stories, notably Brian Lumley’s ‘The Fairground Horror’ and Brian McNaughton’s self-consciously satirical ‘The Doom that Came to Innsmouth,’ are ripe with Lovecraftian references. Most others, including Joe R. Lansdale’s weird western ‘The Crawling Sky’ and Laird Barron’s backwoods monster tale ‘The Men from Porlock’ (original to the book), are more oblique and allusive. To the book’s credit, none of the twenty-seven stories read like slavish Lovecraft pastiche, which makes this volume all the more enjoyable.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Gathering Cthulhu-inspired stories from both 20th and 21st-century authors, this collection provides such a huge scope of styles and takes on the mythology that there are sure to be a handful that surprise and inspire horror in even the most jaded reader.” -Josh Vogt, Examiner.com

“There are no weak stories here–every single one of the 27 entries is a potential standout reading experience. The Book of Cthulhu is nothing short of pure Lovecraftian gold. If fans of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos don’t seek out and read this anthology, they’re not really fans – it’s that simple.” -Paul Goat Allen, BN.com

“…thanks to the wide variety of contributing authors, as well as Lockhart’s keen understanding of horror fiction and Lovecraft in particular, [The Book of Cthulhu] is the best of such anthologies out there.” -Alan Cranis, Bookgasm.com

“The Book of Cthulhu is one hell of a tome.” -Brian Sammons, HorrorWorld.org

“…an impressive tribute to the enduring fascination writers have with Lovecraft’s creation. […] Editor Ross E. Lockhart has done an excellent job of ferreting out estimable stories from a variety of professional, semi-professional, and fan venues […] to establish a sense of continuity and tradition.” -Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus

“As he did for his previous anthology, Lockhart has cast his net far and wide to haul in outstanding stories from publications both well-known and obscure, none sampled more than once. He has also commissioned four new stories, several so good that they are likely to be selected for reprint anthologies in the future.” -Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus

“…any fan of Lovecraft can’t afford to miss out on this one.” -Justin Steele, The Arkham Digest

“The second volume of The Book of Cthulhu exemplifies the richness of Lovecraft’s legacy: gloomy terror, mystery, thrills, vivid action, chilling visions, satire, science fiction, humor–all of that, and then some, is crammed into more than 400 pages awaiting readers eager for some apocalyptic horror.” -Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue

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